Loose-leaf Links #41

Loose-leaf Links is a feature where I gather together the interesting bits and pieces on sci-fi, fantasy and romance I’ve come across and share them with you over tea. Today’s tea is Real Chai’s original blend. As with most proper chais, it needs milk and sweetener in order to taste good. I’m in favour of honey.

Awards News

The winners of the 2017 Sir Julius Vogel Awards were announced last weekend. The awards recognise excellence in speculative fiction written by New Zealand authors.

Porpentine Charity Heartscape and Mia Sereno, the two 2016 Tiptree Fellowship winners, report on what they’ve been doing since they were granted the fellowship. The fellowship is given to SFF creators seeking to develop different ways of viewing gender.

Over on Lady Business, Ira and forestsofglory team up to offer a 5-book reading guide to the Vorkosigan Saga. The saga has a Hugo nomination for Best Series and is 17 books long, so the article may be useful for overburdened readers.

Community and Conventions

The NSW Writers’ Centre will be running their Speculative Fiction Festival on 22 July and the program (PDF) looks excellent.

Twitter was aflutter last week after Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Stephen Hunter published a piece demanding that aspiring novelists write every day or quit immediately. Foz Meadows justly eviscerates the piece.

For Readers

Hodderscape have recently acquired Leife Shallcross‘s Beauty and the Beast retelling, The Beast’s Heart, through their open submission process. I published Leife’s first story in Winds of Change, so I am particularly delighted to see she’s moving on to bigger and better things. Congratulations, Leife!

The Kickstarter campaign for the forthcoming anthology Mother of Invention, edited by Tansy Rayner Roberts and Rivqa Rafael, is currently underway and will run until the end of the month.